Focus on the North
Big boost to defence budget may not mean economic boost to Arctic
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
RANKIN INLET
The federal government has big plans for strengthening the nation's ability to defend itself, including expanding the Northern zone so Canadian fighters can intercept any incursion by a foreign airplane.
Volunteer firefighter Michael Aksadjuak helps an injured soldier during Operation nanook in Rankin Inlet. - photo courtesy of Cpl. Dominic Duchesne-Beaulie |
The new defence policy will see military spending greatly increase, almost doubling the current budget of $18.9 billion to $32.7 billion within 10 years.
The feds want to expand the country's Air Defence Identification Zone to cover the entire Arctic archipelago; a large increase of airspace from the current zone coverage of roughly the middle of Canada's northern airspace.
National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan was in Rankin Inlet for Operation Nanook this past week.
Sajjan had plenty of love to pass along from southern Canadians and the promise of closer working ties with federal agencies, but there was no indication all the increased defence spending would provide any kind of economic boost to the North.
The minister said the government's defence policy is nestled in with wider government.
He said as far as the work the government is going to be doing in the North is concerned, the defence policy positions the government well to ensure it has the financial commitment to the North, while making sure the troops have the right equipment and the Rangers are well supported.
"A lot of work still has to happen, but we want to do it in a way that we work with the communities across the North in the various territories, and, more importantly, we still have to have greater discussions on our defence policy, such as what Northern modernization is going to look like. Discussions will start with the U.S. on that, and also with the North Warning System," said Sajjan.
"But, when we look at our voters here in the North, it's not just strictly about defence. It's about showing the rest of the world we have Canadians who live here and we're going to make sure we fully support them and that they have all the right resources in place.
"There's been a substantial increase in our budget for over the next 20 years and the defence policy is not only rigorously costed, but, more importantly, it's funded as well.
"There is no defense policy that has been funded to this extent, and that's what we're committed to do. Our defence policy looks at all the various threats from Canada, North America and also around the world, and how do we deal with that?"
Sajjan said the government will always work very closely with the U.S., especially when it comes to NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), to deal with any of type of incursions onto Canada's sovereignty.
He said now that defence is properly resourced, the government will do the proper analysis of where the resources need to go, but he's going to let the generals and scientists conduct that type of analysis.
"But there is a wonderful opportunity when it comes to the innovation piece to it (because) we are going to be looking at brand new technology up in the North, whether it's from vehicles, remote piloted systems or our satellites, so you're going to see a lot more integrated approach.
"All Canadians know that everybody matters, especially here in the North.
"In all the consultations I did across Canada, whether it was Toronto, Vancouver or Yellowknife, the topic of our North came up."
Sajjan said the new defence policy is about much more than simply militarily protecting Canada's sovereignty.
He said it's about how does the government work with other departments, and how does it work with a community?
"It really warmed my heart how seriously Canadians - regardless of where we had the consultations - took our footprint here in the North, and it's one of the reasons we're demonstrating, in our policy, the importance of the Arctic.
"Canadians expect us to make sure we look after our women and men in the Canadian Armed Forces and this defence policy is about them. All our people in uniform.
"We ask so much of them. We ask them to look after us in Canada at the time of need, whether it's a forest fire, a flood or any other type of crisis that might come up, always making sure our sovereignty is protected from the sea, the air and the land.
"Look at the sacrifice our women and men had to do in Afghanistan, and continue to do on other operations today, so Canadians expect their government, regardless of what government that might be, to look after the troops and this is what the defence policy does.
"It looks after our women and men in uniform, who we put through tremendous stress because of the difficult work they have to do so that we can live in peace."
